The Segerberg Opera House would also be unique in artistic style. An unknown, highly skilled, artisan delicately painted floral stencils all throughout the theater interior to help create a scene of warmth and color for those looking to escape the cold, dark outdoors. The original decorative painting of the Opera House is a rare example of the transitional period between the Art Nouveau style of the late 1800s and the Craftsman style of the 1920s.
Construction of the Segerberg Opera House was completed in July of 1913. The venue quickly became home to many traveling troupes, moving pictures and high class events. The opera house was built with connecting floors to the lavish New Sheridan Hotel, enabling prominent entertainers of the period including Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Gish, and speakers such as Socialist Presidential Candidate Eugene Debs, to go directly from their rooms to the stage. Famous entertainers and audience members such as Williams Jennings Bryant (a frequent visitor to both the New Sheridan Hotel and the opera house) brought national attention to this 238 seat “jewel box” of a theater.
The following year, on July 27, 1914, a devastating flood rushed down Cornet Creek and tore its way down North Oak Street. Mud and rocks literally moved and flattened houses along the way, burying people and the New Sheridan Hotel in nearly ten feet of debris. By a stroke of luck the slide moved around the Segerberg Opera House on both sides, leaving the building entirely unharmed.